After the problems of both the major-budget failure "Hudson Hawk" and the low-budget failure "Airheads", director Michael Lehmann rebounded 100% with this cute, smart 1996 romantic comedy that stars Janeane Garofalo as Abby Barnes, a pet shrink on the radio who helps out a photographer(Ben Chaplin) one day. Suddenly, he turns up seeking to return the favor. Unhappy about her looks, Abby makes her tall, blond neighbor Noelle Slusarsky(Uma Thurman) pretend to be her.

Obviously, things become messy and both woman fall for photographer Brian. The interesting twist to the proceedings is that Garofalo looks the best that she has on-screen and although Thurman looks good, she's also looked much better in other films. Anyways, the film's charm and smart humor take the audience over the bumps of believability. Not only that, but Garofalo's snappy, sarcastic humor keeps the film from being too light-weight.

Performances from both Thurman and Garofalo are excellent, although Ben Chaplin doesn't do much in a minor role. I'm suprised that Garofalo's great performance here didn't result in a great deal of additional work afterwards. She's really great with Thurman, and the two seem like very genuine friends.

"Truth About Cats & Dogs" doesn't really bring anything terribly original to the romantic comedy genre, but the film's sharp screenplay by Audrey Wells and solid direction by Lehmann make "Truth" one of the most entertaining romantic comedies of the past few years.